Calum Macdonald’s liner-note reminds us that Franz von Suppé
was for years known as the ‘Viennese Offenbach’. He wrote operetta
after operetta and a sampling of these has been recorded by CPO: Pique
Dame, Schöne
Galathee and Fatinitza.

He had a knack for a good tune and was no slouch with catchy melodies either.
This at least guaranteed a long life for his overtures, which were recorded
in the 78 and LP eras. They also found a happy home in numerous arrangements
for brass band and pier-end orchestra. They subsisted in good company with
similarly popular overtures by Auber and Reznicek. In the late LP- and CD
eras they were taken up in collections by Boskovsky (EMI),
Marriner,
Mehta (CBS-Sony) and Dutoit (Decca - preferred by Dan Morgan). Before these
there were zesty versions from Paul Paray on Mercury (reviewreview),
now aptly coupled with overtures by Auber. An unknown quantity - at least
to me - is the compendious 6-CD Von Suppé overtures series from Marco
Polo - see
review of volume 6 with Alfred Walter conducting.

Järvi always seems up for refreshing neglected or unfashionable corners
of the repertory. The results can sometimes be flat; not so here. He is back
with the orchestra with which he won so many laurels in the late 1980s and
early 1990s. He brings both zip and sentiment to these orchestral delights.
He is, for example, as soulful as Bruch in the preamble to Dichter und
Bauer and explosively staccato in Leichte Kavallerie and Pique
Dame. The overtures tend to follow the mainstream Weber model with slow
romantic introductions and stormy or nervy main expositions. He must also
have learnt from the overtures to the big Rossini operas as well as from the
starched Imperial, Janissary and Zigeuner traditions that provided the ram-rod
backbone for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Strauss family sound is mixed
in and we even get some Iberian spice in Juanita and Isabella.
This idiom spread like wildfire to the stage music of Herbert, Sousa and Monckton,
though rather etiolated.

This disc could hardly be more generously assembled and the quality of the
audio and the music-making is similarly high. I reviewed the standard CD layer
rather than the SACD. If you are in the market for this music then you can
opt for this Chandos disc with confidence.

Rob Barnett

This disc could hardly be more generously assembled and the quality of the
audio and the music-making is similarly high.